IRELAND’S NEWEST LIGHTWEIGHT Men’s Double Sculls pairing kicked off their European Rowing Championships title defence with a brilliant heat win in Bled, Slovenia this morning.

Olympic gold medallist Fintan McCarthy was joined by a new partner, World U23 silver medallist Hugh Moore, as Paul O’Donovan sits college exams.

McCarthy and Moore powered to victory in Heat 2 with a time of 06:26.98. They pipped the Polish boat by .84 of a second, with Portugal finishing third. Switzerland (06:23.62) and Italy (06:24.09) won the other heats.

Skibbereen’s McCarthy will hope to take another step towards a third European title in-a-row in tomorrow afternoon’s semi-finals.

Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch also advance after winning their heat in the Men’s Double Sculls event.

They clocked a time of 06:23.73, finishing clear of France and Romania while Croatia, Netherlands and Spain won the other heats.

Women’s Four bronze medal winners at Tokyo 2020, Aifric Keogh, Fiona Murtagh and Eimear Lambe, along with Tara Hanlon — in situ in place of Emily Hegarty — head for the repechage after finishing second in their heat (06:43.36).

Just winners Great Britain, who beat the same quartet to the gold medal in Munich last year, progress to the final.

Elsewhere, Sanita Puspure and Zoe Hyde were second in their Women’s Double Sculls heat (07:04.68) with Netherlands coming out on top and Germany finishing third.

Sanita Puspure and Zoe Hyde. Detlev Seyb / INPHO Detlev Seyb / INPHO / INPHO

The pair won bronze at the World Championships last year, bagging Ireland’s first-ever double medal. Three-time Olympian Puspure and Hyde — 16 years her junior — go in the repechage now, along with several other Irish crews.

Siobhan McCrohan crossed second in Heat Two of the Lightweight Women’s Single Sculls. She clocked a time of 07:54.39, with Evangelia Anastasiadou of Greece winning her race.

There were several other Irish third-place finishers in this morning’s heats:

• Men’s Four (John Kearney, Ross Corrigan, Nathan Timoney and Fionnán McQuillan) — 06:05.77
• Men’s Single Sculls (Brian Colsh) — 07:11.45
• Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen) — 07:08.45

Casey and Cremen will be particularly disappointed not to reach the semi-finals, the 2022 World Championship bronze winners harbouring strong medal hopes this weekend.

Meanwhile, the Women’s Pair of Natalie Long and Imogen Magner (07:28.02) and Mixed Double Sculls PR2Mix2x duo of Katie O’Brien and Steven McGovern (08:35.85) were fourth in their heats.

• You can view all the results here>